Willow's POV:
The entire car ride had been silent.
Not even one second of it had been comfortable.
He was freezing me out slowly, and every time I had pushed him about it he seemed to retaliate by becoming colder. He was less like the vibrant person he was, who he began this relationship as, and now it was like I was dating a rock.
And I wish I could say it was a fun kind like Dwayne Johnson, but instead it was like a boulder. A nice looking boulder, but a cold piece of solid rock none-the-less. I couldn't even look at him as we pulled up to Xavier's house for the belated birthday party for Soraya. A party I knew had an ulterior motive to it, but I didn't know the details.
It wasn't just Alistair that was pulling away from me, the last few days I had seen less of Soraya than usual, and my brother was so disapproving of Alistair that he hadn't spoken to me in over a week beyond family necessity.
I was beginning to think that maybe Wil was right, that I didn't mean anything to Alistair beyond what he used girls for constantly. That the portrait I had painted of him from our impromptu photoshoot was a waste of time and energy, that maybe I should just burn it and move on.
"Will?" Alistair finally spoke as his car jolted to a stop, I could barely lift my eyes to meet his. "What's going on?" He asked as if he didn't know exactly what he had been doing, didn't know that every time he brushed off my concern he was hurting me just a tiny bit more. It was all adding up, and I wasn't entirely sure if I could handle it anymore.
"Why don't you tell me?" I asked, watching his face for any hint of remorse.
"I don't know what you-"
"Don't bullshit me, Alistair." I cut him off, my voice was still gentle as it always was. It's how I was raised. Lashing out hurts everyone, talking things through and resolving conflict with understanding and empathy was better in the long run. And if that doesn't work, it means that the other person doesn't want what you do, and it's best to cut your losses.
"I..." He trailed off, like he was stumped for words. Good.
"I don't expect you to talk to me every second of every day, or trust me with everything because what we are is still new. What I do expect is for you to not let those things get between us and to let me in so I can help you when you're hurting." I told him, the way his eyebrows furrowed told me my guess was right. This wasn't him shutting me out for no reason, he was keeping something from me.
"Willow, this is something you wouldn't understand." He said as if it made everything better, I shook my head.
"Then make me."
"It has to do with money, Will, you just wouldn't get it. Your family has everything, they aren't scared about missing too many mortgage payments in a row and losing everything they have." Well that was a very specific situation to mention.
"Alistair, is that what's happening?" I asked, he shook his head, but not in denial. He screwed his eyes shut as he shook his head, it was to deny that I was trying to understand, that I wanted to help him.
"Will, please, just leave it-"
"No, you have been freezing me out, you can't tell me that you haven't."
"I haven't been doing shit-"
"Exactly, that's the point I'm trying to make. I ask you what's going on and you tell me it's nothing or simply choose to ignore me. And if money is the problem I can help-"
"I don't need you throwing money at my problems, okay?"
"Then what do you need?"
"This isn't your problem, you shouldn't be worrying about this, it's why I didn't want to say anything."
"You went too far with not saying anything. You might not be used to it, Alistair, but when two people are in a relationship they lean on each other. They are a united force against each problem they may face."
"You're right, I'm not used to it." He snapped. "Do you want to throw that in my face as well?"
"I'm not throwing anything in your face, I'm merely trying to say that..." I trailed off, realising what it was that I was trying to say.
"Spit it out." He said, I shook my head.
"You promised me that this relationship, whatever it is, was more than you just wanting to sleep with me. And after that I told you that I would try to help you as best as I could. I wasn't lying when I said that, and if you think that I can't put two and two together to know that your father abused you when you were a child... you told my father you got into boxing because of your neighbourhood, but you didn't. you got into it to protect yourself and your mother from him, from your father."
Alistair didn't say anything, instead he held onto the steering wheel, his knuckles paling as his grip tightened.
"I assume he's out of the picture, but that he's supposed to be paying child support until you're eighteen. I would also be willing to bet that he hasn't been paying it, and that's why you and your mum are having money problems, because even though she's trying her best she's not even making minimum wage at either of her two waitressing jobs, and the few tips she does get aren't enough to cover costs. How much does he owe?"
"He's never paid a damn dollar." Alistair said.
"And you can't afford a lawyer to take him to court..." I said.
"Do you want to point out anything else that's wrong with my life-"
"That's not what I'm doing. I'm saying that this is just what I have guessed, and if you would have told me any of it then I could have helped you. I would have told you that my family has money because of two reasons, my mother is the CEO of a health and wellbeing company and my dad has been a lawyer since he came out of college." I said. "I would have told you that through the years he built his wealth and then moved on to family law, he mostly does pro bono work for people in situations like yours. But instead of talking to me, you decided on shutting me out." I told him.
"I don't want to ask you to help me, I don't..."
"Need it? Want it?"
"I don't want to seem weak, asking my girlfriends father to represent my mother and I in court for free. It's almost desperate, like I would be using your family because their obligation to you. And what if we broke up during court proceedings? Then what? Your father would have no reason to-"
"Are you questioning his professionalism?" I asked, he froze for a second. "I'm not saying that he would do it either, there is obviously a conflict of interest. What I am saying is that he knows other people. He would be able to find someone to help you, someone he trusts and he would make sure you could afford the cost if there was any."
"Angel, that wouldn't solve everything..." He trailed off, I shuffled in my seat to face him better as his body slumped. It looked like the weight he had been carrying finally caught up to him, was dragging him down. I reached over and held his hand in mine, I looked at his fingers, realising how bruised his knuckles truly were. This doesn't happen from training, not when he had been boxing since he was a child.
"What else? Let me help you carry the weight of everything."
"I got us out of being evicted, but... it's not the most conventional method for getting money." He told me, there was something sitting in my throat. Add that to the acidic feeling in my stomach and it meant I had a rough idea of the next words that would come out of his mouth. "I fight in an underground fighting ring."
"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked, since I didn't really know the specifics I couldn't be sure but the way he said his words...
"Yeah, you could say that." He said, I nodded.
"Then stop, you've fixed the problem, you can work something else out, I can help you look for jobs-"
"Willow, once you're in for a season you can't back out or they take the money back. The only way out is to lose, and losing means, at the very least, a hospital visit. I can't do that to my mum, she doesn't know and she can't ever know about it." He told me, I nodded my head. "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to worry-"
"I'm not." I said, and what was even stranger about the words was that they were true.
"You're not worried? I could get killed-"
"But you won't." I said, squeezing his hand slightly. "I've seen you move, seen you practice. While I don't know for sure, I assume that when you fight against someone you are thinking about everything you have to lose. You are stubborn on the best of days, but factor in those stakes..." I said, a gentle smile coming onto my face. "I worry for the people you fight against, because they don't understand what you have on the line."
"Why does that make me feel significantly worse?" He asked, looking into my eyes for the first time in what felt like months but had only truly been a handful of days.
"Because, you hate what you're doing and don't want to hear someone support you in it." I answered.
"Yep, that's the one."
I looked out of the car windows and saw the groups of people slowly making their way into Xavier's house.
"I thought you said this was a small party?" I asked, he turned to look at the multitudes of people too.
"It was supposed to be..." He trailed off. "These things get out of hand quickly though once word gets out that three of us idiots are having a party though."
"That's true." I said, turning to look at Alistair again, his eyes were already trained on me. "How about tomorrow we make a plan? We can talk about taking your father to court if that's what you want and what you are going to do after you win this season, because you are never going back to fighting in those circumstances. Does that sound good to you?" I asked, he nodded slowly.
"Yeah, it does."
"And you need to tell your mother how you got the money. The little I know about Eliana, I have a feeling that she wouldn't be angry with you."
"Angel-"
"You know I'm right. Secrets aren't healthy, especially ones like this. Did you ever make the money trail seem legit, or did you just put in the lump sums into her account?"
"Uh..."
"She probably thinks you're part of a gang, or drug ring or something. If she hasn't brought it up then she's too scared to ask, you need to ease her anxieties. You owe that to her." I said, he nodded. "But for now, let's celebrate Soraya's birthday a second time around."
"Okay, let's go." He said before giving me a quick kiss, I smiled into the contact. After we pulled away I realised that I'd had something I had been wanting to tell him for the last few days.
"One last thing before we go in..." I trailed off, a huge smile on my face.
"What have you done?" He asked, mild concern lacing his tone as he looked at me.
"Well, let's just say that if, by some miracle, we see that Soraya and Ashton seem exceptionally close compared to normal, that it is definitely my hard work that brought them together."